Elder abuse cases in Flint Township shock neighbors, have officials fearing it's part of a much larger problem

Ryan Garza | The Flint JournalChristopher A. Mukdsi charged with felony murder based on allegations that the neglect of his mother was so bad it resulted in her death last summer at 1367 Sun Terrace Drive. in Flint Township. Investigators say she had not moved from her living room couch for eight months before she died, and her son carried her outside to wash her down with a garden hose before emergency crews arrived.

FLINT TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- For more than 40 years, Pauline Niec has made it her business to know her neighbors in the quiet subdivision off Beecher and Dye roads.

She takes walks along the curved roads and waves to neighbors outside nice-looking ranch homes with large front yards.

But something terrible has been going on behind some closed doors on Sun Terrace Drive.

Inside two homes just four doors apart, officials say those entrusted to look out for two elderly women were instead horribly neglecting them -- one to the point of death.

Niec said she knew both families involved.

On warm evenings, she sometimes walked through the neighborhood with Christopher Mukdsi and talked about his mother.

"He said she had cancer," said Niec, adding the walks tapered off a couple of years ago.

But when she opened her newspaper last Saturday, Niec discovered that Christopher's mother, Katherine, had died last summer of alleged neglect so horrific that Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell likened her home to a "death camp."

The woman had apparently been confined to the living room couch for eight months and was so malnourished that she weighed just 63 pounds when she died.

Ryan Garza | The Flint JournalAt this Sun Terrace Drive home in Flint Township, police said a nephew left his aunt to live in filth. A "Do Not Occupy" notice is posted on the front door.

Christopher Mukdsi, 50, was charged with murder last week after an eight-week police investigation uncovered disturbing allegations, including claims that she had not been bathed in a year and been told to urinate in coffee cups and defecate in pizza boxes.

Two months after Mukdsi's death on June 3, 2008, officials rescued her 95-year-old neighbor from a home that officials say had been turned into a filth pit of piled trash by her nephew.

Just a couple years earlier, Niec said she and the woman had taken walks together.
But the walks stopped and Niec no longer saw the woman out on her porch.

Niec thought about knocking on the door but never did.

"I should have but I didn't," said Niec.

Annie Speed, who lives next door to Mukdsi's home, said unkempt lawns and trash sometimes piled outside were the only indicators to suggest anything amiss.

"You don't bother people when family is involved," she said. "You don't want to get into anybody's business."

Officials fear that what happened on Sun Terrace Drive is part of a much larger problem.

"There may be houses on your block, my block," said Pickell. "I'm concerned that we're just getting a teeny, teeny bit of what's out there."

Flint Journal extrasWhere to call for help

• If you suspect abuse of an elderly or vulnerable person, contact the Genesee County Elder Abuse and Exploitation Prevention program at (810) 762-4022.

The allegations on Sun Terrace Drive mirror national trends.

A 2004 national survey on elder and vulnerable adult abuse found nearly 66 percent of victims were women and 54 percent of the alleged perpetrators were family members.

More than a half million cases were reported nationally in 2003, according to the National Center for Elder Abuse in Delaware.

Pickell said the public can help by keeping a closer eye on the elderly and contacting the police when they believe something is amiss.

"We have a moral responsibility to check on our old folks," said Pickell.

Proving such cases takes a lot of time and investigation, said Pickell.

In both Sun Terrace Drive cases, Pickell said investigators with the county's Elder Abuse and Exploitation Prevention had to sort through medical files, interview doctors and neighbors and sift through financial records.